Plain English summaryThe study is reporting the status of teenage pregnancy among adolescents aged 15-19 years in the Dodoma Region. Dodoma Region is the capital city of Tanzania and it is among the fastest-growing city of Tanzania. The region has the highest population of youth in Tanzania. In addition, the study is reporting on factors associated with teenage pregnancy. A range of factors that have been reported by previous studies was assessed in this study to test whether they are significant factors in this population. These factors were sociodemographic factors (age, sex, marital status, education, occupation), social factors (Peer pressure, sexual abuse), familial factors (Household socio-economic status, domestic violence, marital status,), behavioral factors (like age at first sexual intercourse, early marriage, and contraceptive use, perception on teenage pregnancy, family income, peer pressure, and casual sex) and knowledge on sexual and reproductive health. The findings from this study are key to the development of a focused intervention study that will work out the strategies to be used to solve the problem of teenage pregnancies in Dodoma Region Tanzania. BackgroundTeenage pregnancies cause serious health, social and economic consequences including death among adolescent girls worldwide. It is estimated that in 2019 about 55% of unintended pregnancies among adolescent girls aged 15-19 years ended up in abortions, which are often unsafe in developing countries. Little was known about the magnitude of teenage pregnancy and its associated factors in Dodoma Tanzania. Therefore, the study aimed at establishing the magnitude and factors associated with teenage pregnancies among adolescents in Dodoma Region Tanzania.MethodIt was a community-based analytical cross-sectional study that included 539 adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years old. A multistage sampling technique was used to recruit study participants. An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed by using SPSS v23. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the distribution of the entire study variable while the inferential statistics helped to establish factors associated with teenage pregnancy among adolescent girls and the level of significance was set at two sides of less than 0.05.ResultsThe magnitude of teenage pregnancy in Dodoma was 29%. After controlling for possible confounders, factors associated with teenage pregnancy were; urban residence [AOR: 3.02, 95%CI: (1.60-5.68), p = 0.001], low mothers' education status [AOR: 3.46, 95%CI: (1.47-8.11), p = 0.004]; Poor knowledge on sexual and reproductive health [AOR: 2.09, 95%CI: (1.2-3.63), p = 0.009]; Low family economic status [AOR: 3.83, 95%CI: (1.77-8.30), p = 0.001]; Peer group [AOR: 2.92, 95%CI: (1.33-6.40), p = 0.007]; Early marriage [AOR: 2.58, 95%CI: (1.57-4.26), p < 0.0001]; and Sexual abuse [AOR: 13.56, 95%CI: (7.98-23.06), p < 0.0001].ConclusionThis study found a high magnitude of teenage pregnancy among youth in Dodoma. Teenagers who were more likely to teenage pregnancy were those with limited knowledge about sexual and reproductive health living in urban, from families with low economic status, their mothers had a low level of education, from a culture that encourage early marriages, with the influence of peer and who experienced sexual abuse. An innovative intervention study to come up with a cost-effective strategy to address the challenge of teenage pregnancy in Dodoma is highly recommended.
